Donald J. Trump predicts a “major collapse” in the Republican campaign and a “depression” for the television industry should he prematurely exit the presidential race.

In a recent interview, Mr. Trump offered a vainglorious pre-obituary of sorts for his candidacy, should he ever end it (for which he insists he has no plans).

“There’d be a major collapse of the race, and there’d be a major collapse of television ratings,” he said from his office in Trump Tower. “It would become a depression in television.”

Mr. Trump said that a presidential campaign without him would become so “boring” that he would struggle to pay any attention to it.

“I wouldn’t even be watching it probably, and neither would anybody else,” he said.

Even as Mr. Trump says he will not leave the race — he retains a lead in many national and state polls — he has started to at least entertain such a hypothetical in interviews, mostly at the prompting of reporters. Over the weekend, he told NBC’s “Meet The Press” that should his polling drastically fall, he would weigh quitting.

“If I were doing poorly, if I saw myself going down,” he told Chuck Todd, the show’s host, “if you would stop calling me because you no longer had any interest in Trump because he was doing so poorly, I’d go back to my business. I have no problem with that.”

In the late September interview with The New York Times, Mr. Trump elaborated on the financial doom that would befall the television industry if that moment ever came.

“I have made Fox and CNN so much money, and MSNBC, so much money,” he said.

As for himself, Mr. Trump said he would need time to adjust to life as simply Businessman Trump, not Candidate Trump.

“Well, it’s very intense, and it will certainly be like being in a decompression chamber,” he said.

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